The availability of on-line communication that includes but is not limited to e-mail, web-based feedback, and on-line chat has generated an explosive growth in data communication that does not come in the form of structured data, but rather as natural language text in digital form. Consumers and businesses are now able to communicate, execute transactions, and perform a variety of electronic business functions online.
The sheer quantity and lack of structure pertaining to natural language communications renders the complexity and cost of extracting value from this information prohibitive in many cases. Therefore, analyzing unstructured textual data and generating insight from such content has posed challenges for researchers analyzing customer communication, interests, and market trends. By the same token, many messages go unread simply because targeting large numbers of messages to appropriate parties within an organization is too costly to be done by current methods.
With the near real time availability of information, at times issues may arise which require speedy response, timely alteration and or correction of material information being disseminated to consumers. Often the first opportunity for awareness of such an issue occurs in the form of consumer feedback. However, as noted the lack of structure and volume of feedback may frustrate the ability to recognize and respond to such issues.